Xavier Mayne

Author of M/M romance that's sweet, funny, and hot

Why I self-published “We Are Fallingwater”

This week I launched We Are Fallingwater, my first self-published book. Why self-publish?

I’ve released six books with Dreamspinner Press since 2012, and have two more coming in 2017. The team at Dreamspinner has been great to work with—especially Andi, my terrific Senior Editor. They took a chance with a completely novice author and published Frat House Troopers, and they’ve seen it through audiobook and now graphic novel formats. I have no complaints, and would recommend them to anyone looking for a top-flight publisher of MM romance.

But there are some compelling reasons why I’ve decided to self-publish, and I wanted to share them in case any other authors are out there considering the same.

I’ve decided I’m genre-fluid.

In writing We Are Fallingwater, I’m moving from writing about what I know (straight-to-gay and gay-for-you) to what I’m not sure I can do (bisexual MMF romance that’s male-focused but not dismissive of the female experience). See, that’s a mouthful just to say.

Dreamspinner, though, is clear that they are a MM romance house, with no MMF allowed. Which is fine—they have every right to stick with what has worked so well for them. But I wanted to try something new, so it was time to pursue a new avenue.

I’m a control freak.

Self-publishing seemed like a worthwhile challenge. My day job is in content development on a design-focused team, so I’m familiar with design and production. I use Scrivener for writing, and it can output to Kindle format with a couple of clicks (well, a few more than a couple the first time, but it doesn’t take long to work out the kinks). GIMP is free, and drawing on my experience with Photoshop, I’ve learned what I need to do for cover design. Apple’s Pages was all I needed for creating the We Are Fallingwater media kit.And Amazon has amazing tools for self-publishing—the Kindle ecosystem can do just about anything a self-published author needs to do (and few things I never imagined doing!).

It’s immensely satisfying to see that Amazon detail page and know I’ve managed the entire process.

Self-publishing doesn’t mean I do it all myself.

I spent nearly a decade as a tenured professor of English. So my prose is generally pretty solid, from a technical perspective. And yet if you were to read my first-draft manuscript, you’d wonder how I managed to fake my way through a PhD program.

That’s why every writer needs an excellent editor.

I was lucky enough to have an excellent editor come to me. Ben Renki, who edited We Are Fallingwater, sent me an email several years ago simply letting me know that he enjoyed my writing. We corresponded a bit, and he stepped up to be my first reader for everything I would eventually submit to Dreamspinner. He is one of those rare readers who can sort all of the details while making perceptive and subtle observations about the highest level of the narrative. I have come to trust his judgment implicitly.

When I first considered self-publishing, I immediately asked him if he would be interested in becoming my for-real editor. He jumped right in with me, and I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish together.

A key factor in self-publishing, then, is to be aware of what you can do, and what you need some help doing.

Would I do it again? I already am

It’s been a lot of fun to self-publish, and though the jury is out on whether anyone will actually buy We Are Fallingwater, I’m glad I did it. I’m already working on the next novel I’m going to self-publish, and it should be ready to go in a couple of weeks. Like Fallingwater, it’s a book that didn’t really fit in Dreamspinner’s wheelhouse—just between us, it was a little too dirty for them. But I’m not one to hide my smut under a bushel, so you’ll have a chance to read it soon.

Thanks, dear reader, for coming on this adventure with me. There’s more fun ahead.

Juan Pablo Galavis–A Bachelor in a Bind

I feel sorry for Juan Pablo Galavis.

Not because I support what he said, because of course not. But I empathize with the impossible bind he finds himself in. He’s in a no-win situation when it comes to “the gay question,” in ways that the Duck Dynasty folks simply are not.

Here’s the first problem:

Juan Pablo Galavis™, from his Twitter of the same name.

Nothin’ but straight about that guy, amiright?

Okay, so maybe I’m being unfair. Here’s another pic, to show his range:

©2014 Fox News Latino

I think we all see the issue.

For a bachelor to be successful in the eye of a media frenzy, he must be stylish, he must be fit, and he must be instantly charming, graceful, and empathetic to his bachelorette(s). For those of you keeping score at home, those are also pretty much the job requirements for every woman’s Gay Best Friend. Oops.

When the very qualities that would make him the most eligible straight man in the world are the exact same qualities that would make him the most eligible gay man in the world, something’s gotta give.

I’m not excusing the reprehensible homophobia inherent in his remarks. I’m not even arguing that he is himself homophobic–I’ve never met the man (we travel in rather different social circles). But I am saying that I understand the bind he is in. In an essentially homophobic culture, he must find ways to establish that although he may dress like he’s gay, have a physique that many gay men in the world might find appealing, and come across on television as sensitive and romantic, he is not gay. And perhaps a clumsily worded interview is the best way he could think of to stake his claim to straightness.

In the future, when homophobia is as passé as racism, this kind of defensive gay-bashing won’t be a convenient “get-out-of-gay” free card. But we don’t really expect our reality-TV stars to be revolutionary thinkers, do we?

HusbandMaterial_FBThumbI’ve been thinking a lot about this issue lately. If you’d like to see what happens when a gay man does compete on a bachelorette-style show, I would direct you to my new novel, Husband Material, published this week by Dreamspinner. It’s fun, sexy, and has a pretty sharp take on the sexual identity politics inherent in “reality TV” romance.

Maybe I’ll send Mr. Galavis a copy.

Please note that this line of reasoning does not have anything to do with the Duck Dynasty debacle. Those people are just bigots.